For contemporary magicians, the sense of being on the leading edge of
cultural transition tends to be encapsulated in the concept of a new Aeon.
Thus the profusion of 'new aeons' projected by various magical paradigms.
So as not to be seen to be missing an essential item in their magical
script, some Chaos Magicians have begun to project the glamour of the
Fifth Aeon - the Pandemonaeon.

The concept of a new aeon has several magical functions:

It provides a filter through which the magician can examine
current social trends, possible developments, and how they may
be influenced.

It acts as an Ideosphere for the development of new ideas,
concepts and techniques from outside the boundaries of his present
Achievable Reality.

It can become a meta-aim to unify groups and orders towards
working for a common goal, and act as a gambit to aid the design
of possible futures.

Unlike many of the prevailing new aeons, the Pandemonaeon is envisaged
as being different for each individual who projects themselves
within its frame. Just as Chaos Magick emerges from the diversity
and transience of modern culture, so does the Pandemonaeon typify
the trend towards individualism becoming separate from any totalizing
belief or narrative, be it metaphysical or scientific. So far,
it has not been projected as an overall epoch that all will participate
in, but an experience of culture which embraces, rather than attempting
to resist the modern condition. Thus it is likely that this aeon
is merely a transitory stage itself, and what lies beyond it,
none can, with any certainty, say. Some Chaos Magicians are finding
that this Fifth Aeon projection is useful for going beyond current
definitions and limitations concerning what is accepted as magical.
The next generation of magi might well discard the concept, in
favour of a meta-projection which balances their experience of
culture, with what possibilities are round the corner. The absence
of inevitable future projections leaves only uncertainties, where
nothing is true, and everything is permitted.

Projections of possible futures are hampered by existing cognitive
habits, which tend to define the limits to which information can
be used. For example, a dominant pattern used in the conceptualization
of future progression is the idea of evolution. Evolution is sequential,
collective, and seems to be a result of mutual decision-making.
Evolutionary projections are locked into considering history as
the prime source of useful data. Thus many people spend more time
looking backwards, in order to try and theorize about the future.
In contrast to the evolutionary paradigm, there is the design
paradigm. Design breaks with the tradition of slowly working towards
a goal and instead, examines a situation from its current status,
and how that situation can be changed. Traditional cognitive habits
tend to look backwards, whereas the design stance moves forward
from what is current in the present. The aim of design is to move
the boundary of Achievable Reality forwards. To design effectively
requires a vision, or end-state.

Chaos Magick can be understood as the discovery and application
of effective techniques and scripts to maximize human design for
living.

The Ideosphere is a non-local space entered by the magician in
order to explore possible models & paradigms which may be
of use in configuring the Pandemonaeon. The Ideosphere is more
of an attitude; a stance from which the magician can seek inspiration
from any incoming information, be it newspaper articles, cartoons,
flickering media images, scientific jargon, random acronyms, or
half-heard phrases from another's conversation. An idea flashes
into the Ideosphere; the magician may grasp it immediately or
store it for later work. The main attitude to foster is that nothing,
no matter how ridiculous, bizarre or unworkable should be rejected.
Working from the Ideosphere, the magician allows himself to bathe
in the emanations of the mass media until, sated and bloated,
he withdraws into silence to digest, regurgitate, and create new
forms.

Latching onto new ideas brings forth new perspectives on existing
models and techniques. It brings forth new paradigms for structuring
magical processes which in turn, may yield new techniques and
applications. Here are a few ideas which magicians have appropriated
from other sources, and made their own.

A powerful source of inspiration is the understanding of, and
fascination with Virus Behaviour, whether it be the computer viruses
which have revealed themselves to be the gremlins of the information
age, or the biological viruses such as H.I.V, which is promoting
vast amounts of research into how viruses behave. A third type
of virus which has caught the imagination is the word-virus, or
meme.

A virus is a set of instructions which invades larger systems,
and induces them to carry out a complex sequence of replications
which bring new copies of the virus into existence, and, during
this process, the host system is altered in some way. This is
true for computer viruses, biological viruses, and word-viruses.
The emerging magical use of virus systems opens up new forms of
understanding and applications alike.

Like organisms, memes replicate to perpetuate themselves; like
organisms they are capable of fusion, recombination and mutation.
They propagate themselves by leaping between nervous systems,
growing in power and infecting further host vehicles through any
communications channel that can be utilised to secure them a niche.
Memes compete ruthlessly with each other, for the command of the
perceptual field and transmission time. The success of a meme
to occupy a prominent position in the host environment is dependent
on its Performance Value (Pv) and its Propagation Quotient (Pq).
Performance Value relates to the degree of change a meme brings
to an individual or group. If the presence of a meme brings about
increased cohesiveness, ambition and confidence, then the individual
or group is more likely to promote the meme. The most successful
memes are those which reduce anxiety in their hosts by providing
a purpose or a stable location within a space-time projection.
Some memes survive by reinforcing each other, supporting each
other's message; reinforcing the overall impact. Other memes survive
by discouraging rational analysis upon their content.

An obvious example of memes in action is religion. 'God' is a
meme, 'Heaven' is a meme, and the punishment of 'eternal damnation'
is a meme. A complex web of memes is known as a Scheme, which
are comprehensive meshes of memes that propagate themselves through
any available communications channel. The religious schemes which
have almost totally infected the human environment are successful
as they offer varying degrees of stability, participation, and
can become tacitly self-evident to the level that they become
not merely the host's worldview, but the world itself. The infected
hosts live entirely within the parameters of the scheme, perhaps
only vaguely aware of other worlds which exist beyond the scheme.
Worlds which threaten the stable order of the invading scheme
must be ignored, forced back, fought, or destroyed.

Of course the spread of a meme is dependent upon the reaction
of the potential host. A sense of being a unique individual with
a clear purpose in life is a strong human requirement in the current
age, as the sense of being an individual distinct from any cultural
attachments becomes progressively stronger. The deeply-felt alienation
felt by many in these first stirrings of the Pandemonaeon makes
them ripe hosts for infection by memes, locking individuals into
safe spaces from which they can push back the buzzing, booming
confusion of the everyday world.

Understanding the spread of memes leads the magician into the
area of Control Commands - autonomic responses locked into language
and patterns of thought. A growing concern for Pandemonaeonic
magicians is the design of new approaches to conceptualizing,
with attendant meta-languages for escaping the old habits of thinking.
William Burroughs targets particular semantic traps which lock
the human host into a narrow range of thinking: the definite article
'THE', the 'IS' of identity that does not allow for wider possibilities
and assigns permanent status to verbal labels, the 'EITHER/OR'
that only allows being wrong or being right. Crowley was on the
right track when he urged his students to delete 'I' from their
language. With no dominant 'I' there can appear a legion of selves:
loose the daemons. Delete 'EITHER/OR' and open up a myriad of
possibilities, none of which need to be wrong or right.

One of the simplest manifestations of viral text is the chain-letter,
which uses the simple, yet effective 'carrot & stick' hook
to propagate itself. A more insidious form of viral text shows
up in thought and behaviour patterns. Consider the statement:

THE ILLUMINATI [x]

ARE TAKING OVER [y]

THE WORLD [z]

The explicit message of this statement is not important. The implied
message is that group 'x' is attempting to do something 'y' to
group 'z'. It is also implied that the recipient of the message
should be (a) concerned, and (b) do something about it, lest they
be perceived by the sender as siding with 'x' - the enemy. Beware
of anyone who in all seriousness acts using viral messages, which
have been one of the standby props of orthodoxy, be it political,
religious, or magical. To propagate effectively, viral texts require
potential hosts to be susceptible to the idea of an enemy group,
action against which coheres their own sense of identity. Once
a viral message is allowed to take root, then the host is open
to invasion by other supportive memes - BEING RIGHT, and GETTING
EVEN. Sources of much trouble and stupid, destructive behaviour.

In orthodox magick, great store is set upon a magical object being
special or unique. There are the instructions to create unique
talismans, buy virgin parchment, and to create objects for a specific
purpose. There is said to be power in a unique object, particularly
in these times or mass production and marketing.

But wait, there is power in mass production too. Consider the
chaosphere, the central logo or glyph of Chaos Magick. It appears
on books, magazines, letterheads, toy soldiers, jewellery and
tattoos. It is used on rave posters and on the back of leather
jackets. It has become itself a viral image. All that is required
is a shift in perception and those thousands of chaospheres, wherever
they are, become gateways for the ingress and egress of magical
power.

Take two: A sorcerer acquires for himself a suitable receptacle
for an act of magick. A three-inch high pink, plastic creature
with a mane of fibrous hair, sometimes known as a 'Gonk'. There
are thousands, perhaps even millions of Gonks in existence. All
with a similar structure. So the sorcerer enchants upon his Gonk,
and by the principle of Structural-Similarity, transmits that
information to all the others. What he has here is the creation
of a powerful Gonk-spirit, its qualities and attributions an encapsulation
of the associations which are marketed as the 'image' of the Gonk.
He has empowered the Gonks with spirit, and his own Gonk becomes
the controller. In times of need, he can draw through his Gonk,
the power of the others.

Take three: A young man is desirous of a lover. He sigilises his
desire and likes the image so much that instead of destroying
it, he photocopies it and disperses the images randomly. Lovers
appear from all directions.

Objects need not be particularly striking or special to be magically
useful. All that need happen is that the magician defines that
object as magical - combining image, associations, and will. Rather
than resisting mass replication, the magician turns it to his
advantage.

VIRAL SERVITORS

A further application of virus systems emerging in Chaos Magick
is the creation & application of Servitors which have the
capacity to replicate, mutate, and recombine into new forms. Viral
servitors, behaving in a similar manner to biological or computer
viruses, are now beginning to propagate in virtual space, performing
functions such as healing, protection, and seeding ideas into
the general meme-pool. (Note: Viral Servitors are discussed further
in my book Condensed Chaos, New Falcon Publications, 1995).

In order to infuse humanity with the Pandemonaeonic currents,
one must look to very basic restrictions, from which more complex
bindings depend. The C.H.A.O.S Virus recovers the chaosphere both
as icon of infectivity and a magical gateway for the transmission
of Fifth Aeon emanations. The virus acts to bring about change,
but at a microscopic level of processing. The intrusion of the
virus into a human self-complex acts to stimulate those selves
which desire CHANGE - in terms of new ideas, pleasure, intelligence,
adaptability, and FUN.

Each time a self within an individual stirs towards CHANGE, then
the virus copies itself. Note that much of these stirrings are
likely to take place at a latent, unintentional level of information-
processing. Acting over time, the virus acts to weaken ego-resistance
to CHANGE, new ideas, new learning, and fun. As the virus cells
propagate, they combine in groups of eight, to become the virtual
shadows of new selves - potential desires, growing within the
web of selves, stirring impulses from beyond the confines of the
ego.

From the moment that the C.H.A.O.S Virus is projected, every chaosphere
in existence on the planet, be it an astral form, image, or object
- and any new ones which come into existence - becomes a transmission
site for the virus.

The virus also prepares the host for further reinforcement which
may take the form of seeded memes, enchantments, image projections,
or sonic sorceries. The virus transmits itself using the principle
of Structural-Similarity, so that anything resembling a sphere
or circle intersected by eight vertices, will transmit the virus.

(Note: The
ConsciousnessHeuristicAnalogueOptimisingSystem
Virus was released at the Winter Solstice, 1992)

Strange languages are very much part of the overall glamour of
magick, from Barbaric names of invocation to the use of foreign
languages such as Hebrew or Sanskrit. All magical systems tend
to generate their own technical language for describing magical
experiences and techniques within a common framework. Like the
technical terms used by scientists and specialists, terminology
can act as a barrier for the uninitiated, if the use of special
language causes description to become so opaque that no one outside
the specialist group understands what is being said.

Magicians create meta-languages not only as magical tools for
acts of magick, but to open up shades of experience which are
difficult to describe clearly, given the current restrictions
of language. The aim here is greater precision in communication.
Wordless communications can be developed for experimental work
in telepathy and virtual (astral) magick. Experiments in these
areas suggest that visual images, colours, & pictographs are
easier to transmit between individuals in dream or virtual space,
than words alone. So attempts have been made to create communications
systems based on the use of colour, scents, spatial perspectives,
and contextual imagery & settings, in attempting to establish
communications in shared dreaming or attempts to link awareness
in virtual (i.e. astral) space.

From the juxtaposition of word and image, meaning is glimpsed.
From the Chaos of the normal is woven apparent simplicity. All
the secrets of magick are on open display. That which is truly
hidden is our own resistance to this realisation. To live within
the confines of Consensus Reality is to remain locked in Time;
Past - Present - Future. In this sense, all magical acts are scripts
for momentary slips through the fabric. Magick takes place outside
of Time.

Through the simple technique of Cut-Up, pioneered by Brion Gysin
as a literary technique, the magician can collapse sequential
experience into syncretic Gnosis. The basic technique is simple
enough when applied to text: Take a page of text, cut into 4 sections
and re-paste. New word lines & messages appear. This disruption
of the sequence of language creates Tangential Deliriums - new
messages arising from the juxtapositions of words and the derangement
of the associations this provokes. Cut up texts on magick to discover
new magicks. Cut up the Book of The Law and discover any amount
of new chapters.

There are parallels with this method and the more obvious tools
of magick; sigils as cut-ups of desire, for example. Divination
systems that cut-up a subject into image blocks, throwing up insights,
new images, gestalts. Reshuffle beliefs by deliberately holding
two contradictory belief systems - make meaning from nonsensical
beliefs. Cut-Up belief to understand its dynamics.

Record two different conversations. Then record them onto the
same tape. Intercut with street noises, television fragments,
readings from texts and newspapers. Record, replay, and intercut.
Result - a Third Mind. The 'absent' source of information which
slides in to the listeners' awareness, arising from the Time Disorientation
induced by listening to the tape.

Why Time Disorientation? All routes to Gnosis act to temporarily
dislocate the Ego. The Ego requires Time (sequence) to maintain
the fiction of single identity. Text and logical thinking are
sequential. One step at a time, one unit following another. While
attention is selective, the creative spark is associative and
syncretic. A great deal of magical practice rests on the ability
of the mind to make associative connections. Any stimulus which
is strong enough to evoke emotion and memory throws awareness
out of sequential Time. Smell particularly, is a hotline to memory.
Instant access.

Word juxtapositions throw up new messages. Image juxtapositions
open new worlds. Modern media presentations particularly in the
visual arts, are increasingly utilising the Cut-Up technique:
the layering of images & associations serving to collapse
Time-sense. Elements of Past, Present & possible Futures may
be evoked simultaneously in a single visual image. The news media
works to change the context of a message to create new hidden
meanings, acting under the illusion of 'objectivity.

Create a montage of sounds, images, associations for a particular
day of the week. For example, 'capture' Monday onto tape. Intercut
with verbal messages which you associate with Monday; add street
noises, random conversations. Intercut and playback. You have
created a platform for voyages into Oracular space. Sounds, images,
associations arise from the assembly. The tape can be used as
a background for dream control or scrying. Stranger still, you
may hear sounds on the tape that you were not aware of recording.
A truck passes. Days later, you hear the sound of the truck in
the street, and you are jerked sideways into oracular time.

ENCHANTMENT

Enchantment may be considered an act of collage. Assemble the
elements you desire to affect and re-arrange. It is already done
with objects and images, so why not sounds too? Assemble a soundscape
as in the example above, which relates to the object of the enchantment.
Recording captures the target space in the same way that a bottle
traps a spirit. A recording can be taken away and altered, and
then returned to the original location and replayed.

EMOTIONAL ENGINEERING

Emotions can be deconstructed into three elements: physiological
arousal, cognitive association and behaviour patterns. Each of
these are separate tracks on a mixing desk, capable of being remixed
in new arrangements. When in a state of extreme arousal (anger,
sorrow, tension) the first step is to experience the physiological
track apart from behaviour and cognition. Remove the identification
with the source of the emotion. Still all internal dialogues,
inner conversations, mental fantasies. Experience sensation without
words or images. Here the magician is dislocated in Time; pure
sensation without identification. In this state, any act of magick
may be performed. To re-engineer emotions, experience the arousal
as ecstasy. Dispassionately run the word/image track and adjust
accordingly. Identify behavioral patterns and remodel them. Name
the selves, capture their inner dialogues, intercut and playback.

The use of Cut-Up is naturally enhanced by keeping diaries, scrapbooks,
recordings, and most importantly, being aware of what is happening
outside one's immediate field of attention.

This essay is extracted and adapted from Prime Chaos by Phil Hine,
available from Chaos International Press, BM Sorcery, London WC1N
3XX. ISBN 0-9521320-0-1